Sig Christenson is a veteran military reporter who has made nine trips to the war zone. He writes regularly for Hearst about service members, veterans and heroes, among other topics. He is also the co-founder and former president of Military Reporters and Editors, founded in 2002.

July 2014

07/27/2014

Condolences to Ken Murray's lovely wife, Teresa, currently serving in Afghanistan, and their family, friends and community in this great loss. A blog post I wrote seven years ago about Ken and Teresa, when they served together:

Back in the United States, I’ve seen scores of command-change ceremonies. Bands play, if you’re high enough in rank, flags are passed, salutes are given and the crowd applauds.

No offense to you generals out there, but in our business we call this story a “snoozer.”

Yet here in Baghdad a command-change ceremony occurred that’s worth noting. A husband gave over command of a 1st Cavalry Division medical unit to his wife, who he married last year at the Bexar County Courthouse.

The command change in the Green Zone took place on April Fool’s Day.

“When we passed the guidon, I saw the excitement in my wife’s eyes, and felt the certainty that I was leaving my unit in the best capable hands,” said Capt. Kenneth Murray, 33, of Kempner, outside Fort Hood. “I felt a great deal of pride watching Teresa as my wife, rather than a peer, start on this most significant chapter in her professional career.”

Teresa Murray, 26, now leads the 15th Brigade Support Medical Company, 2nd Brigade Combat Team. It provides care for troops in the “Black Jack” Brigade headquartered in a now-tattered palace built for Saddam Hussein’s wife.

As Teresa took over, Hubby moved to the maneuver brigade’s staff, working with its surgeon, Maj. Bruce “Doc” Rivers, in planning medical operations and helping set up Iraqi facilities. That’s a critical part of the Baghdad Security Plan, which aims to win hearts and minds by providing badly needed services to a war-weary citizenry.

Their many Alamo City ties would surprise you. Both attended the Officer Basic Course and a portion of the Captains’ Career Course at Fort Sam Houston. Kenneth Murray was a medic and spent years on the post, and the couple has roots in Brooke Army Medical Center.

Of course, in a love-and-war story like this, the local connections go straight to the heart.

“Teresa and I were married at the Bexar County Courthouse in San Antonio on June 20, 2006. In attendance was Col. Carlos Angueira, the deputy commander for clinical services at BAMC, a great friend and supporter of our family. And our witnesses were Ms. Carolyn Putnam, the general’s secretary at BAMC, and Mrs. Jeannie Noble, the general’s secretary at the AMEDD Center and School.”

Kenneth and Teresa and met as aides-de-camp for Maj. Gen. George Weightman and Brig. Gen. C. William Fox Jr., respectively, and have been together ever since. Fox was the hospital’s commander at one time, while Weightman led the Army Medical Department Center and School.

The happy couple had a lot in common even before they met. They’re career soldiers and Medical Service Corps officers. Their line of work is medical planning, operations, intelligence, training and administration, and they’ve worked closely together since serving as aides. Their jobs here dovetail nicely, as does their history. It seems they had the same circle of friends while at Fort Bragg, N.C., but somehow never met.

Next year, their friends will gather on the River Walk to watch them tie the knot again in a formal wedding. They’ll eventually settle in San Antonio when it comes time for him to retire around 2011, build a retirement home and start a new life as a civilian.

Truthfully, those are vague plans. Kenneth and Teresa aren’t even sure if the Pentagon will extend their year-long tours, something I have been told is more likely than not.

They aren’t unhappy about that or serving in Iraq, where Murray is on his second tour. The Army paid for his undergraduate and graduate degrees, delivers a steady paycheck and will provide a pension. It’s long been his center of gravity, not to mention his love connection. Where else, after all, could a husband swap commands with his wife?

“Either of us could as easily do something else. I have a master’s degree in health care administration, and T is very close to completing her master’s degree in emergency and disaster management,” he said.

“Speaking for me, being among soldiers, saving the lives of people in a war-torn country, and serving gladly where some others might have resentment means better conditions for my soldiers. To quote the Bible, ‘Where much is given, much is required.’”

Link to the original post: http://blog.mysanantonio.com/military/2007/04/sig-christenson-of-love-and-war/

07/21/2014

The nation's oldest woman veteran, Lucy Coffey, has dreamed of making one last trip to visit her favorite monuments in Washington, D.C. Come Friday, she can check that one off her bucket list.

At 108, the longtime San Antonio resident will board a commercial airliner and fly to Washington, where she will see the World War II Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery and the Women's Memorial. “I want to go, I want to see it,” she said.

Still, this journey almost didn't happen. Veterans' supporters in San Antonio and Austin worked to fly the ailing Coffee, who is on oxygen and frail after suffering a stroke, to Washington without overtaxing her.

Everyone thought things were set late last week when an Austin aviation broker agreed to charter a plane, but the firm dropped its plans because of legal concerns. That didn't stop a pair of retired Marines in Austin and San Antonio from pressing on, and with help from the Texas General Land Office, they struck a deal.

Pending final medical approval, American Airlines will give Coffey and her caregiver free first-class, round-trip tickets to Washington. A tour of the monuments is scheduled to begin Saturday and end with a visit to the White House.

07/17/2014

SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio woman who is the nation's oldest female veteran wanted one last trip to Washington, D.C., and thanks to a pair of veterans groups and an Austin firm, she's going to get her wish.

Lucy Coffey, 108, will fly out of San Antonio on a chartered plane next week and go the capital. There, she'll visit the Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery and other monuments, and may even see the president or vice president while in town.

“Everybody's just really excited to be able to honor her in this way. She's a pioneer. Her service has really opened doors for future generations of women,” said Bexar County veterans service officer Queta Marquez, adding that Coffey is serving her country even as a centenarian. “By virtue of her taking this trip, she's actually highlighting military service, and military service for women.”

07/16/2014

SAN ANTONIO — Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has hired a high-profile attorney and may have met Wednesday with an investigator looking into allegations of misconduct while Bergdahl was in Afghanistan.

Lawyer Eugene Fidell denounced leaks by government officials as “disturbing” and likened some of the accusations against his client to the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth campaign that damaged former Sen. John Kerry's presidential bid.

“There are people who have spoken that have vilified him in the media, sometimes using their own names and sometimes not,” Fidell, a visiting lecturer at Yale, told the San Antonio Express-News. “He's been turned into a kind of punching bag in some circles, and my job is to defend him.”

07/14/2014

SAN ANTONIO — A month after arriving in San Antonio for the third and final stage of his rehabilitation process, former prisoner of war Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl went to work at a desk job Monday at U.S. Army North in San Antonio.

He'll perform administrative duties at the headquarters on Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, but it was unclear what precisely his job would entail.

“He's going to be doing soldier duties commensurate with his rank and qualifications,” said Don Manuszewski, a spokesman for Army North. “Like anybody else, he'll go through a period of training to go through our processes and procedures.”

The move ends six weeks of closely scrutinized counseling, four of them in San Antonio under an Army South program designed to slowly ease former prisoners back into society. He is living in noncommissioned officers quarters on Fort Sam and can come and go as he pleases from the post.

SAN ANTONO — The Air Force said Monday it would eliminate 352 jobs in San Antonio as part of a nationwide restructuring of headquarters staffs that is expected to save $1.6 billion.

All of the jobs lost here mostly likely will come from the Air Education and Training Command, but Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek didn't have details. It also wasn't clear how many people would lose their jobs.

In some cases, she said, unfilled positions will be eliminated.

“We don't know that yet because there will be some number of those that are military positions,” Stefanek said, noting that those in uniform would be reassigned elsewhere.

07/09/2014

SAN ANTONIO — When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Lucy Coffey had left the farm in Martinsville, Indiana, spent time in Chicago and finally settled in Dallas, where she worked at an A&P supermarket.

After quitting the A&P in 1943, she joined the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, a call to service that would take her to Japan before she returned and settled in San Antonio.

Now, at 108, the nation's oldest woman veteran has one more trip to make, this time an Honor Flight, an all-expense-paid salute to World War II veterans. The destination: Washington, D.C.

“I'd like to go to see things that are there that were not there before,” Coffey said

07/08/2014

There's long been talk of saluting San Antonio's war heroes, but the idea moved in fits and starts until last week, when 175 people converged at the Tobin Center to dedicate the Medal of Honor River Portal.

The portal is a gateway to the new Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, which opens in September.

The soldiers honored at the site were both famous and obscure, ranging from privates to generals and even a president, but all had one thing in common — exceptional valor.

“They're just super examples of soldiers, and I think that might be why they did what they did,” said Eldon “Buddy” Gee, 73, a San Antonio Special Forces veteran of Vietnam. “It's just the way they are, it's their chemistry, their body, their biological makeup.”

07/07/2014

NEW BRAUNFELS — Jake Hixson was to be Sgt. Thomas Spitzer's best man at his wedding, but instead gave his eulogy Monday at St. Paul Lutheran Church before a crowd that spilled into a lobby, while Patriot Guard riders stood outside on a hot afternoon.

The service was followed by a motorcade along Interstate 35 that saw people waiting at an overpass to salute Spitzer and his burial at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.

Friends recalled Spitzer as a young man who hewed to an honor code that prompted him to volunteer for a second tour of Afghanistan's most contested province, Helmand, where more coalition troops — 951 — have died than in any other. They searched for an upside to the end of a promising life and found it in the way he lived.

“We are left here today to honor a young man who in his 23 years ... lived life to the fullest,” said the Rev. Don Ofsdahl. “He was more interested in the quality of life than in the quantity of years.”

07/04/2014

A blue-ribbon Pentagon panel appointed to recommend changes in the military justice system opposes any effort to strip commanders' authority over prosecutions, dealing another defeat to critics of the system.

The panel last week handed down dozens of recommendations covering the way the military prosecutes sexual assaults, including a controversial call to take senior commanders out of the legal process.

The panel was created by Congress in the wake of highly publicized sexual assault incidents that included misconduct at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, where 35 basic training instructors have been investigated for misconduct with 69 recruits and technical school students. It ended up backing top Pentagon leaders, who want commanders to rule on courts-martial.